Hullo all!I'm very new to Craftster, so please excuse me if I muff something! I've been very inspired by the amazing painted shoes people have been posting, and I finally made my own. Now I'm getting a lot of requests about how I did it, so I thought I'd try to post a tutorial. They are pretty simple and easy to do.

Here's the finished product!

To make these I used:1 pair of white fabric or canvas shoesordinary pencil1 black washable laundry sharpieacrylic paintfabric mediumpaint brushoven and oven thermometer

Step 1.Come up with a design. I chose cats because these were a gift for my Mum who loves cats. Pull out the shoe laces, and draw your design onto the shoes using a pencil. If this is daunting, try printing a design you like and copying or tracing that. You can also try cutting out shapes and using them as templates to draw around.

Step 2. Once you're happy with the pencil design, go over it all with the sharpie.

Step 3.Mix up your paints. If you own fabric paints, ignore this step. I used acrylic paint and added a fabric medium. (I used Derivan) This will, once heat set, make the paint waterproof and permanent. I like my colours sparkly, so I also added an iridescent medium. Make sure the paint is nice and liquid, if it's too thick, water it down a bit.

Step 4. Paint in the background. Don't trying to build the colour up in layers, it's more like staining the fabric. Allow to dry.

Step 5.Paint in the shapes! I used metallic colours. Allow to dry.

Step 6.Go over all the black lines again with the sharpie so they're nice and strong. I also painted the white stitched edges black.

Step 7.Heat set the paint. It's very important not to skip this step or your paint may wash off if the shoes get wet! Follow the instructions on your fabric paint or medium, it will tell you how hot the fabric must get and for how long. In my case, I needed to heat the shoes to 150C for 4 minutes. I used my oven with an oven thermometer in it for accuracy. Preheat the oven until it is the correct temperature. Put the shoes onto some rags on a tray - this way the tray doesn't heat up and melt the soles of your shoes! Put them in for exactly the right amount of time, and keep an eye on them! Use good ventilation - hot shoes, even brand new ones, don't smell good. Remove and allow to cool.

I am really interested in doing a personal swap, especially for greener things like reusable lady items, wool dryer balls, or other such things. I can knit, sew, draw, and put things together in pretty neat ways. Please PM me if you're interested.